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+--- Thread: Thinking of getting Apple TV, should I? (/showthread.php?tid=31575)
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Thinking of getting Apple TV, should I? - Microman - 04-15-2007
Hesitate getting version 1 of a product. You know that there will be a newer, better featured unit in the next year as a follow up. I Don't think I will be buying anything from the Apple Store to watch. But I like the idea of streaming audio and or video from the Mac. I suppose the G4/400 wouldnt work, and I would have to use the Macbook. And I might need to upgrade my wireless router. Not sure what it is, except over a year old.
Re: Thinking of getting Apple TV, should I? - BigGuynRusty - 04-15-2007
Do it, I have been doing what AppleTV does for three years, it's a lotta fun!
BGnR
One thing that I can't do is bake cookies on mine.
Re: Thinking of getting Apple TV, should I? - ztirffritz - 04-15-2007
I saw one in the Apple Store yesterday when I was buying the wife's Macbook. I was disappointed in the quality of the video. It looked really bad. Not even VCR quality. I'm guessing that is because it was video off of the Apple store. I think that videos you rip yourself can be higher quality, but Apple legally can't show those in the store.
Re: Thinking of getting Apple TV, should I? - mrbigstuff - 04-15-2007
there were a few people here who have drunk the Kool-Aid. maybe they can chime in. I'm tempted, too, but I don't watch a whole lot of television and the occasional DVD film, so I'm not sure it would be a wise investment. BUT, I am about to buy an extra Airtunes thingy, so I would rather avoid spending the $100 on that if I know that the ATV would benefit me in some way I've yet to envision.
Re: Thinking of getting Apple TV, should I? - d0e - 04-15-2007
i took mine back for a couple reasons.
1. the appleTV remote launching frontrow on the mac mini
2. having the content in two places (appleTV and the itunes machine it's sync with)
3. video did not look much better than the mac mini
4. wireless would loose sync often and have to put the wpa2 key back in everytime.
$299 just seams way over priced for $100ish i would have kept it
Re: Thinking of getting Apple TV, should I? - chas_m - 04-15-2007
When people say they saw something on the AppleTV that "looks bad," I positively guarantee they are watching something that was a) ripped at the old "ipod quality" of 320x240 from the iTMS (they have NOT changed over all or even most of their video stuff to the higher quality yet), OR they got it off the net where it was misripped by PC amateurs.
Download something like the remastered Star Trek episodes from iTMS and I *assure* you they look WONDERFUL. They're not quite DVD-quality and they don't look their best if you've left your TV all stretched out or at the wrong native res, but they look fine if you're not a moron with no idea how to use your HDTV.
I don't watch a lot of TV but I do watch a lot of video. I'm seriously thinking about the ATV because I find that more and more of the stuff I want to watch -- even if it IS at lower quality -- is on the web. Rare interviews, offbeat programs, short films, documentaries, etc. I also have TONS of photos that look GREAT on my HDTV. And I'd like to use the HDTV and it's decent stereo hookup to be my focal point for streaming music. And I'd like to have some control over what people can watch when, for example, we have young guests in the house (no random cable channels!).
For all these reasons, an AppleTV is appealing. I'm not concerned about buying a version 1.0 so much because if they really did do a complete revamp that was 100% better, I'd just sell/give the original ATV to someone who would make better use of it.
I think a LOT of parents might find the idea of 40GB (or more) of pre-programmed storage of kid-friendly movies/TV etc. that can be summoned on demand without tying up their computer and with ZERO risk of damaging the original DVDs *very* appealing. And that's just ANOTHER good use for the thing.
Currently I spend a fair amount of time converting European TV stuff I collect into DVDs to take into the next room and watch on the HDTV. If it could stream ... man that would save me a CRAPLOAD of time, but I don't think most of the files are in MPEG4 format yet. Maybe if the "hacks" to make ATV run other formats were a bit better integrated ...
Re: Thinking of getting Apple TV, should I? - RAMd®d - 04-15-2007
Many reports indicate that a g router works well. I tried a Mac-to-Mac stream and found that b doesn't work.
For the ATV, you need a TV that has Ethernet, component, or HDMI connections. Apparently it has to be widescreen as well.
Re: Thinking of getting Apple TV, should I? - deckeda - 04-16-2007
A typical TV used with AppleTV will have HDMI and component connections; you need one or the other only.
This includes 4:3 models that can do only 480i, and a CRT TV that's not widescreen but has component connections is relatively cheap, making it a decent candidate for the streaming-kids-videos task. I need such a TV myself.
Re: Thinking of getting Apple TV, should I? - Article Accelerator - 04-16-2007
[quote d0e]i took mine back for a couple reasons.
1. the appleTV remote launching frontrow on the mac mini
You just needed to pair the remote.
Re: Thinking of getting Apple TV, should I? - davemchine - 04-16-2007
I bought an airport base station (n) in anticipation of moving to the appletv in the future. It is somewhat limited in what it can playback in it's native form but there are fairly easy hacks available right now to allow for xvid playback, and that is probably the most popular format available. I expect the appletv to become more open in the future as people learn more about how it works and what it can do.
dave